Hillary Clinton is ready to appear before Congress once again to testify about the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, the former secretary of state’s lawyer said in a letter to the panel’s chairman.

The 2016 presidential
frontrunner is prepared to answer questions about the attack –
which left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Chris
Stevens – as well as her use of a private email account during
her time as secretary of state, lawyer David Kendall said in the
letter, the Associated Press reported.

However, Kendall added that Clinton will only appear before the
panel once. Originally, panel chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.)
wanted her to appear twice and answer questions about Benghazi
and her emails separately.

"Respectfully, there is no basis, logic or precedent for such
an unusual request," Kendall wrote, according to the AP.
"The secretary is fully prepared to stay for the duration of
the committee's questions on the day she appears."

"She will stay as long as necessary to answer the Committee's
questions, but will not prolong the Committee's efforts further
by appearing on two separate occasions when one will
suffice," he added, according to NBC News.

In a statement, Gowdy’s communications director, Jamal Ware, said
the congressional panel will consider Clinton’s letter.

"The committee has consistently shown it is interested in
getting the facts and doing so in a deliberate and diligent
manner," Ware said to NBC. "As a result of the Benghazi
Committee's efforts, the American people now know about Secretary
Clinton's unusual email arrangement with herself, something that
would not be known had the committee rushed to call the former
secretary in November as Committee Democrats pushed."

Republicans have routinely used the September 11, 2012 Benghazi
attack to criticize the Obama administration and Clinton for
failing to properly secure America’s diplomatic compound and for
allegedly misrepresenting the attack as a protest that escalated
into violence. Investigations into the incident found merit in
the complaint that the government did not provide enough security
for its diplomats, but also conclude that the administration
generally responded to the attack properly.

Democrats, meanwhile, continue to argue that conservatives want
Clinton to testify twice only in order to influence the 2016
presidential race.

"Chairman Gowdy should take 'yes' for an answer and finally
schedule the hearing," wrote Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) in
a statement. "Dragging out this process further into the
presidential election season sacrifices any chance that the
American people will see it as serious or legitimate."

While the controversy surrounding the Benghazi attack has not
substantially damaged Clinton, the fact that she used a personal
email account as secretary of state – and deleted thousands of
emails without turning them over to the government – seems to
have hurt her standing with the American public, according to a
new poll conducted on behalf of the AP.

Clinton claimed that the 30,000 emails she deleted were personal
in nature, but the poll found that a majority of Americans
“believe she used a private address to shield her emails from
transparency laws and they think she should turn her server over
to a third party for further investigation,” the AP reported.